Tuesday, March 31, 2009

This is NOT my painting; this is my photoshopping of a Heresy figure (Big Boris Mk2), that I will be using as a D&D character (goliath barbarian).This pic represents what I would like the final figure to look like, but I doubt I can sculpt the manica (leather arm armor) very well. I can do the shoulder armor easily, but it really needs the manica to work in my opinion. The character's background will be that of a freed gladiator (hence the manica.) I also may try to sculpt a greave for the left leg. First thing's first, I have yet to see the figure in my hand: I just ordered it a couple days ago.Last piece of conversion: The double-bladed axe will be cut down to a bearded axe. Though, I'm still on the fence whether to take the axe or a sword.

Monday, March 23, 2009

I've been enjoying Friday Night Fights by Two Hour Wargames, so much so, that I'm busy painting up some bare knuckle fighters and other assorted toughs to use in the game.Since I've set my fights in a 1930s pulp setting, I just had to have a sailor, but I couldn't find any that would match up well with Copplestone's figures. The problem was solved by converting one of Copplestone's own figures. The original figure is the bat-wielding figure from GN13 Street Toughs in the Gangster range.I began the conversion by (1) clipping away the slot tab (since I'd be pinning the figure to a homemade urban base) and the bat (since the game is about fighting with fists, not cheating with weapons.)(2) The next step was important: With the bat cut away, the arm was in an akward pose. I needed to rotate it into a more believeable position. This was accomplised by wrapping the arm with a thin piece of heavy paper (so that my pliers would not ruin the surface of the mini) and carefully rotating the arm with a pair of needle nose pliers. MUCH better; now my sailor looks like he's puffing his chest out and clinching his fist, challenging other fighters to come forward and get their blocks knocked off!(3) Not many sailors wear suspenders (or old sports caps), so these were simply filed off. The suspenders on the baclk of the mini were more diffulcult to remove because the mini's back is concave where my files could not reach. I solved this problem by filing as much as I could, and covering up the remainder with greenstuff. At this point, I also made the sailor's hat. Surprisingly, this was a difficult shape to make for as simple as it looks. Plus, I had to make sure it was the right size.I did not saw off the mini's orginal hat (4), because even a razor saw will remove extra material, and I needed as much head and hair on the mini as possible to make the sailor hat look good (and look correct.) So I filed the hat down to the ears and at an angle. When I reached the ears, I used needle files to clean up any excess metal. The sailor hat was glued on, and that was it!! Painting was easy, though, I'm a little out of practice; I've been teaching myself to sculpt and convert and build. It's time I get back to painting with patience.Still, the sailor came out better than I thought it would, and he will make a nice addition to my collection of fighters.

A leaping fighter from Reaper's Warlord range. I believe it is a Necro solo. Painted for my friend Charlie for his D&D games. Nothing special done here; the only conversion made was to remove the metal slot piece and a support bar attached to the cape, and then drilling and pinning the figure to the base. The connection is quite solid, backed up with a little epoxy resin poured into the bottom of the base to "grab" onto the pin underneath.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Howdy all! Sorry there's nothing new to post right now. I do have some random miniatures I'll be painting over the next couple weeks, so there may be a few pics now and again. I also have some Copplestone Castings street toughs (No. GN13 found here) on the way. I'll be painting those up for use in the game, Friday Night Fights by Two Hour Wargames.

Also- one of my aunts (Aunt Sandy) sent me a book on sculpting with polymer clay (Encyclopedia of Polymer Clay Techniques). This book is great! It illustrates a lot of fundamental techniques using polymer clay (Sculpey, Fimo etc), as well as offers tips on baking, conditioning and care for the clay. I haven't had a chance to look through the whole thing, yet (I just got the book 1/2 hour ago,) but it's going into the little library next to my workbench. I'll try to get some more Sculpey projects posted to the blog. One thing I want to try is a mosaic of gladiators such as these. Sculpey can be flattened, scored, baked and broken into your mosaic "stones" fairly easily; it's one of the techniques covered in the book. When I do the mosaic project, I will use pre-colored blocks of clay. I could paint the colorless sculpey, but I think the precolored stuff will look more authentic for this project.And everyone thank my Aunt Sandy!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Here's the monkey head painted. I'll need few more coats of gloss varnish on the eyes, and I still need to figure out how to add hair. I overcooked the head a bit, so it came out darker requiring me to repaint it. I simply used Foundry's flesh trio of paints.So the head was easy enough to make (only took me a couple hours), I may make another ... and another and another BWah HA HA HA HA HA HAAA!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Here's another Sculpey project. Not really a miniature, this is a lifesize head of a small, generic monkey. I like the natural color of the Sculpey, but I will certainly paint the eyes. One eye will be a regular monkey eye, while the other (the lazy eye) will be milky white. I still need to figure out how to apply realistic fur.

I will use this monkey head to curse my enemies, make dark wishes and the such :)